Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Am I bitter? No, but I'm waiting...

Don Martin (no, not Don Martin from Mad magazine, you freak) was speculating in the newspaper yesterday about the suspicious nature of the timing of the CBC lockout. According to Martin, he was informed by an insider three months ago of not only the launch of the lockout but also of the dragged-out resolution of the dispute. The dates were eerily accurate. The speculation was that seven weeks of payroll savings would cover the CBC's revenue loss from last year's NHL strike, and that of course the start of this year's NHL season would spur the resolution of the lockout.

Let me state for the record that I am not a union supporter. Never belonged to a union, never expect to. HOWEVER, I can tell you where my sympathies lie in this instance.

Firstly, this was a lockout, not a strike. In my books, whoever does the shit-disturbing is to blame.

Secondly, you tend to side with those you know. I don't know any CBC management people from jack-shit. I've seen Robert Rabinovitch in the news, and that's as far as it goes. I have met numerous CBC personalities over the years (and they've all been lovely) and of course depend upon many others to wake me in the morning, to give me the information I need to shape my day, to titillate my brain, and finally to sum up the world for me at the end of the day. I miss that and I miss those people.

Thirdly, all this for a contract that requires CBC to hire nine new staff before they can contract one new employee? When about 30% of the CBC is currently on contract? Hardly groundbreaking.

Emmanuel - you may well have the dubious honour of being the last spammer to advertise on my site. I have to admit I've had some fun laughing at the pathetic spam messages, but it's starting to wear a little thin. May have to implement word verification. (my apologies to any dyslexics in the blogosphere)